


Idiot

by substandard_motel



Category: Voltron Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, I’ll never forgive them for abandoning that plotpoint, Keith’s suicidal tendencies, Klance if you squint, LM and JDS why, season 8 broke me, the paladins care about keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:39:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/substandard_motel/pseuds/substandard_motel
Summary: “If you’re seeing this, I guess I’m dead.”Keith left a message behind for the team. Lance finds it.





	Idiot

**Author's Note:**

> First posted work lovelies, enjoy :)

 

The hologram flickered to life in front of him, bathing the room in a ghostly, blue light. His hand flew to his mouth to stifle the gasping whimper that escaped as he stared into the unseeing eyes of his.... rival? Teammate? Friend? He felt robbed of his chance to make something out of the trembling thread that had seemed to tie them together, split harshly and suddenly in two before either was prepared.

“Hey guys... it’s been a while.”

Maybe, just maybe, he could convince himself that this was really Keith. That he was just away on a mission, saving the universe and messaging the team to just catch up. But Keith had never done that, would never have done that. He left and didn’t look back. He left, and he left Lance alone to compete against a mere shadow; just like back at the Garrison. Lance was the funny one, the loud once, the dumb one; Keith was the warrior, the fighter, filled with such burning anger and recklessness that the team could hardly say the news had come as a surprise.

“If you’re seeing this, I guess I’m dead.”

 _You_   _dipshit_ , Lance thought, his vision blurring around the water pooling around his one human eye. The other had been lost, gouged out by an enemy general who was bigger, stronger, better than Lance. A cybernetic replacement now sat in its place, custom made to match Lance’s other eye ( _anything_ _for_ _a_ _defender_ _of_ _the_ _universe_ , the doctor had said, alien pincers clicking as he cooed). It wasn’t right, of course; Lance had been born with one brown, one blue eye. But it hardly mattered, so he stayed silent. Only after the procedure, when he stared into twin pools of blue in the mirror, did he start to cry.

“I’m sorry.”

 _You_ _better_ _be, you asshole._

“I didn’t mean to leave you all like this. I...” he took a sharp, shuddering breath, and the facade shattered. In that moment, Keith Kogane, lone wolf and temporary steely leader, Lance’s distant and oblivious competitor, became real. He became a real boy, a teenager, a _child_ , hurled into a war he shouldn’t have had to fight in in the first place; having stolen away in the middle of the night chasing a whisper, a trembling theory pieced together by paper, red string, and an overwhelming ocean of pain that he had been left to drown in.

“Please, just know that I never wanted to leave. I had to, for the good of the universe. For the good of the team.” He smiled, but it was sad and lonely. So, so lonely, just like Lance had been this past year without him.

Lance reached forward, a desperate need to touch Keith, to hold him one last time, to tell him _no, we miss you, please come home._ But his outstretched fingers met nothing but empty blue light.

”You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a family. I... I love you all.”

 _You idiot,_ Lance thought as the hologram flickered and froze, Keith’s eyes regretful and full of so much sadness.

_We loved you too._


End file.
